On the Wall

I finally have a design wall, and I am so excited! I've been playing with my Blocks of the Month from 15 Minutes Play. You can see where all my yards of yellow strips have been going in this glimpse. I just heard that the deadline for finishing this quilt got moved back into January (yay!) I'll show you more of it then!

Building Blocks

I can't even remember how long I have been working on this yellow & orange log cabin quilt... a blogger search tells me it was at least 2 years back in December. Maybe 2 1/2 years? I know I have been collecting yellow & orange fabric for it for almost all of my quilting career!

But now I have sewn all the blocks.

64: enough for a queen size quilt.

This picture doesn't do them justice, I was just so excited last night at midnight when I finished the last block, I had to take a picture. They are are so happy! They remind me of little jewel boxes full of sunshine and joy.

I still need to assemble the quilt top, which comes with a catch....

These are lazy log cabin blocks... meaning that I was too lazy to get and press each log as I sewed, I just finger-pressed and squared everything in my lap. There is a lot of variation in size, so I'm going to have to add some coping strips to square them all up.

I'm definitely adding more yellow and orange strips but I'm tempted to throw in some of this pink & red Kaffe print as well. What do you think?

photo from GloriousColor.com

Over the Rainbow

I've been working on my rainbow string quilt bit by bit... I thought it would be fun to lay all the blocks out together to see how they look...

Stunning!

I have 32 blocks so far, so I'm less than halfway to the 80 I need for a twin size quilt. Unfortunately, some of my color-sorted bags of strings are still bursting and some are dwindling. I have a serious purple string shortage! I guess I need to do some more sewing to restock those strings!

In other scrap sewing news, I made this mini quilt for the 12"x 12" Something From Nothing Challenge Swap over on the 15 Minutes Play site. I love all these bright bits!
And now- back to more quilting!

Tonight's the Night

Here's the next quilt up for quilting in the April Quilt-A-Thon, Indian Summer. I was planning on quilting it last week, but it's been through quite a journey since then.

First, the vintage sheet I was going to use for a backing was more "used" than "vintage." I couldn't find something else I liked for a backing for it...

Then, it was throw size and let me know that I really didn't need another throw, I needed a full size quilt for my guest bed. It got wide red borders, using up all the solid and semi-solid red in my stash (eek!)

Next, I did find some backing fabric for it, pieced a back, and decided I had just made the back for another quilt, that I have made one block of. So I put that aside for later.

Finally, I pieced it's own back, and basted it. It's ready to go... tonight.

And I wonder why I have such a hard time whittling down my stack of unquilted tops?

April Quilt-A-Thon

Here they are: my finished tops and one quilt in the hoop... the subjects for this month's Quilt-A-Thon! There is 9th quilt, too, I just don't have a picture of it (you know your pile of tops is out of control when you don't even have pictures of all of them!)

My goal for April is quilt as many of these as possible. If all goes well that means at least 3...

They are:

1. Grayson's Quilt done 4/11
   
2. Triumph Star
3. Amish-ish Mini Quilt
4. Gypsy Madness
5. Summer Flowers
6. Bright Snowballs
7. Stars & Strings
8. Calico Houses
9. Indian Summer

I am looking forward to showing off some finishes. If you've got tops... feel free to join me... April is the month... let's quilt it up!

WIP World

O...M...G...! This is really what my tiny little sewing area looks like right now... It's WIP World and it is a disaster!

Now that my big family birthday week is behind me, and my sewing machine is back from the shop, it is time to crack down on this situation. I'm all for making a big creative mess, but at a certain point I can't find anything, and have no room to work, no space for any constructive energy to flow, nada.

My desk needs to be cleaned off, the stacks of fabric and quilt tops on my ironing board need to be dealt with, and the bags of WIPS under the ironing board need be marched out and WIPped into finished tops!

My big plan is to:
-quilt at least 3 quilts by the end of the month
-not start anything new until those babies are quilted
-piece my heart out on those WIPs

Annnnndddd..... here I GO!

Taking It Slow

I'm waiting to get my sewing machine back from the shop, doing some hand quilting, watching March Madness and getting ready for 2 birthdays in my household this weekend. (That's slow mode? Yes!) What are you looking forward to this weekend?

Decisions

How does your creative process work? Do you ever start something and not like it? What makes you decide to scrap it or keep going? I started this piece as a possible entry for Victoria's 15 minute block challenge... and I thought it was brilliant, until I realized that it was WAY bigger than the required size.

Scrap it? No, I thought I could make it into a mini quilt... I'm planning on using minis to practice my free-motion quilting. So I addded the corner blocks with the diagonal rays, and thought it was awful.

Scrap it? No, my sewing time has been seriously reduced because I recently started a great new job, so I am going to make something of every creative moment I have. I added the scrappy blue border next, using all the scraps from piecing the star.

I needed a little extra fabric to make it all the way around, so I reached into my 2.5" strips bag and pulled out some blues. EW! They looked all wrong, but I sewed them on anyways. How is it that they can look the wrong color separately, but all together they work? That's the magic of scrappy quilting!

Now this is going somewhere that I like, and I have some ideas for where it's going next that I think are brilliant!

The Sweet Sixteens

They are still growing! A little more slowly, because I've been working on other quilts (and socks) and because I started a new job this week. I hope to have a couple of quilts all quilted and ready to go this weekend though!

Trying Something New

I have been sewing something other than 16-patches (but don;t worry, 16-patches, I still love you!)

I have this improvisational red and yellow quilt called the Soup Dragon. It called for an arc of points, which has had me stymied for quite a while. How do I do that? I thought paper piecing would be my best bet, and thankfully, Victoria had a reassuring tutorial that helped me overcome my apprehension that I would ruin everything totally.

I discovered that paper piecing is actually pretty easy.

And it looks great.

Now to finish piecing that brown/ochre border (in much smaller bits) and figure out how to attach it along the curve. Another something new to try... it's amazing how much you can learn when you follow your intuition!

Even More Cuteness!!!

These blocks just keep growing.. and growing! They make me smile... but I promise my next post will be about a different project... like the kids quilt that has been languishing almost done on my sewing table all week while I obsessed over these scrappy little blocks!

More Cuteness

I've been single-mindedly sewing more of the cute little 16-patch blocks in all my spare moments. They are multiplying like bunnies! I can't help but feel that my other projects feel sad and neglected right now, through. I really need to get back to some finishes!

Seriously Cute

These 16-patch blocks are 6 1/2"... so little and so cute! I had been planning on making these blocks from my scrap strips for a while... all the scrap quilts from the 1930s and 40s with 2 color blocks really get me going... especially 16-patch and bow ties. Love them! Not that my scraps look like a Kansas farm wife's in the 40s... but they are really cute in little blocks. (The colors in the photo are horrible... I need to find a better way to fix that, iPhoto isn't cutting it.)

I was supposed to be a good girl and finish something before I started these... but it's better to have fun than be good! I am quilting a kids quilt, but I keep running out of thread- dang it!
When I couldn't quilt, I cruised Flickr and ran across this phenomenal Seriously Red quilt by Linda Rotz Miller (whose photostream is endlessly inspiring!) I seriously had to start piecing 16-patch blocks right away!

It turned out that my 2 1/2" strips were pretty well under control but my 2" strips were bursting out of their bag... so out they came to play. I think these will end up being a baby quilt... possibly hand quilted.

Piecing scraps and listening to jazz on a Monday night... as Shelly would say, quilting makes my skirt fly up! Seriously!

True Colors

I joined up with the Flickr Scrapbusters Challenge 2011 for a couple of reasons:
1. There's nothing I love like a scrap quilt
2. I have a lot of scraps, and the strings are especially out of hand. Or I should say- out of basket, since my bags of color sorted strings are just... overflowing.
3. The lovely LauraJ invited me!

So... I started a string quilt (oops! There's another quilt to add to the list!) I had my strings sorted into rainbow colors, so I started making rainbow blocks.

As Cyndi said, "Your true colors, True colors are beautiful... like a rainbow."

So pretty... I LOVE these colors... but I've made more than 10 8-inch blocks, and barley a dent in my string stash....

We're having a lot of fun with these, through. My 8 year old is helping choose the strings, and she loves peeling the paper off the backs. I have to admit that is my least favorite part of string blocks, so we make a good team!

We're going to keep making blocks until we either have enough for a twin size quilt for her, or all the strings fit in the basket- whichever comes first!

More Madness

I finished my Gypsy Madness quilt top this weekend- it's my version of Kaffe Fassett's Diagonal Madness Quilt from Country Garden Quilts. I started making it from yellow, orange pink and blue scraps as my Leaders & Enders project last year. I ended up adding an extra border of Amish Buggy, or 16-patch, blocks to make it fit my queen size bed.

This is a huge quilt for me... it barely fit on my living room floor to lay it out and quilting is going to be a B! I had to get my husband and my daughter to help hold it up so I get photo of the whole thing. My daughter is standing on a chair behind there, it's so big! We had to go outside to take a picture because of the size, before it starts raining later this week. Even with all those shadows, I am loving the striking watercolor tones of this quilt!


I'm planning on sticking to Kaffe's simple quilting from the book... I want to get this done and on my bed!

The List for 2011

Now that 2011 is here, I'm looking forward to what goals I'm getting focused on for this year. I have a pile of quilt tops all stacked up, WIPs in queue, and as always, a lot more ideas than time. I will use this list to keep me on track all year.

WIPs
Clearly, I did finish some WIPs last year, but the list (below) keeps growing. I currently have 15+ projects in some uncompleted stage! My first goal this year is to finish those beauties, and especially to quilt my finished tops!

Quilting
Speaking of quilting, I had a goal last year to improve my machine quilting skills and I still need to tackle Free Motion Quilting. I can do this! This year, I will make some mini quilts for FMQ practice and work on at least 2 different FMQ techniques.

Stash
This seems like a perpetual goal of most quilters: use up my stash. I actually enjoy quilting from my stash, but I enjoy collecting fabric even more. I don't actually want a smaller stash, but I am just running out of room. So, I'm renewing my goal to use up enough stash to fit my boxes of fat quarters on my fabric shelves. This will be the year that this happens- it will!

I also aim to use up scraps, especially strings, and keep my scrap bins at a manageable size.

2011 WIPs:

1. Christmas Tree Mini Quilts done 1/11
2. Stars & Strings tabletopper (started 2009) top done 7/10, basted,hand-quilting in progress
   
3. Baby quilt: spring strings (top done 3/10), basted 8/10
   
4. Donation quilt: houses top done 8/10
   
5. Bright Snowballs (started 2009, top done)
6. Applique Flowers Wall Quilt top done 8/10
7. Indian Summer top done 12/10
   
8. Gypsy Madness Leaders & Enders top done 1/11
   
9. Wedding Ring Table Runner top done, quilted 10/10
10. Stash Busting Bee International Log Cabin
11. Say Cheese Self-Portrait
12. Seasons Mat for R's preschool
13. Crumb Blocks
14. Pinwheel Quilt
15. Bloom Mini Quilt
    
16. Holy Night
17. Soup Dragon
18. Yellow & Orange Log Cabins
    

On the design burner (fabric has been pulled or cut, but no sewing has been done):

1. Bricks & stones baby quilt
2. Boy blocks baby quilt
3. Girl blocks baby quilt
   
4. Rainbow book stack baby quilt
5. 2233 Pineapple
6. Bento Boxes for S
7. Leopard Roses
8. Christmas quilts
   
9. Donation quilt for A's school auction

Holy Night

A holiday challenge piece in progress... Wishing a peaceful and joyous Christmas to all!

Happiest Blocks in the World

I always crave bright and cheery in the darkest days of the year... After finishing my first round of gifts last week, I really needed a nice quilty pick me up, and none of my WIPS fit the bill, somehow. I started working on these log cabin blocks... I have been gathering orange and yellow strips for 2 years for this quilt, and the blocks are so worth the wait!


I am really excited to see ALL THOSE FABRICS come together... I'm going for queen size with this one too. There's something very meditative and calming about sewing rectangles together into squares, so working on this makes me feel like a cat napping in a sunspot in the midst of all the holiday hustle.

Adding to my happiness this week... Victoria requested these cheery blocks for the 15-minute SCRAP-BEE for January. They are so irresistible I couldn't help but get started early!

Wishing a very happy and merry week to all!

Holiday Sewing

The holidays are here! I've been quietly but busily stitching away at some mini quilts. I adore these cute little trees!


Once I finish these pieces, I have gifts to make for my daughters' teachers and a few lucky family members.

If there's any time left in December after that, I'll try to finish up as many quilts in progress as I can! I do have a Christmas quilt planned, but it will probably have to wait until next year. No matter- another year filled with more quilts is a happy prospect!

Snow Days

We moved into a snowglobe this week... we had 2 or 3 inches of snow, which in Seattle means that the whole city closes down. My yard was blanketed in snow...


My family was wrapped up in quilts...


And I got lots of sewing done since it was so cold we didn't even want to play outside long. I made enough 16-patches to add a border to Gypsy Madness, since it needed to be a little bigger...


And I started piecing my log cabin blocks from the Stash Busting Bee International into a quilt top-- another queen size! I am in the land of giants! It's totally different than the layout I had planned when I requested this block for my month back in January, but it's looking great.